Abstract: In recent years, the microfluidics technology based on the surface acoustic waves (SAW) has attracted a wide attention due to its many advantages such as simple and efficient generation and control of the SAW, multiple interacting forms between the SAW and the fluids, simple manufacturing process, and easy to integrate and detect. At present, as far as the biochemical analysis and the medical detection are concerned, the research of the SAW based microfluidic technology is mainly focused on the cells/particles sorting, the separation, mixing and concentration, the acoustic heating, the acoustic atomization, and the biological sensing. Some prototypes have almost reached the maturity stage, to be developed into portable devices with a huge prospective market. In this paper, the research of the microfluidic technology based on the SAW for the cells/particles sorting, separation, mixing and concentration, the acoustic heating, the acoustic atomization, the biological sensing reported in the last twenty years is reviewed, as well as the related research trend from a single effect study of acoustoforce, acoustothermal and acoustoelectric to the study of multiple physical effects, from two dimensional and micro manipulation to three dimensional and nano manipulation, and from planar device to flexible device.